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Controversial immigration law will be on the agenda of the Canadian Senate. The bill C-31 has already made its way through the House of Commons despite the disagreement of the opposition parties. The proposed new law will allows mandatory detention of foreign arrivals, without Canadian visa or other valid immigration document. If the bill receives majority vote from the ruling Conservative’s party it will turn to law by the end of this summer.
According to Canadian immigration minister Jason Kenney, the newly proposed law, if accepted, will be an important step in the government efforts to reform the Canadian asylum system. It will also enhance the immigration and will enable officials to perform security screening and biometric data collection. Furthermore, Mr Kenney, who has already stated his intent to introduce greater control over the Canadian immigration system, thinks that the new bill will help the government in the fight with human smuggling.
The proposed law is however not without its critics. Jimmy Sims, who is immigration expert for the New Democratic Party says that the new bill goes against the Canadian and the International law. He considers it as extremely harmful for the Canadian immigration and refugee system. His opinion is that the law punishes the most vulnerable citizens, by treating them with going to prison when they arrive in Canada.